Shopping bag finished

Shirley shopper with removable decoration

I was having lunch with a good friend some time ago and she admired my new shopper so I said I would make her one too.  Well that was earlier this year so I just had to make her one soon ....  Anyway, this is the shopper which has expanding sides and a removable Christmas medallion just for fun on black and silver glittery ribbon.  I will give it to her on Saturday a bit late for Christmas shopping but it might come in handy for the sales...............

Its a bit more sophisticated than the photo looks because it does up with a clasp at the top for security and also inside are one very deep pocket and another for a mobile or glasses, so it took me quite a while to make.  The handles are extra thick and soft so they won't cut into hands when the bag is loaded and they are long enough to go on the shoulder. The centre panel is pink not rosy red like the photo and its made with and lined with furnishing fabric so its good and strong, with a plastic insert along the bottom for extra strength. Well that's it for today, I still have some sewing left to do so if it doesn't get done tonight there is always tomorrow.

Spring flowers

Aspidistra Flowers

I have a large aspidistra in my lounge which sometimes flowers in the spring and a few days ago I just thought I would take a peek incase and voila there they were. They are always very close to the earth under the stalks so they can be difficult to spot. You can just make out the second one in the photo with its back to you beside the right hand stem. Once there, they seem to last for a few weeks. I have never detected a smell but then I must admit I can't get my nose in close enough.......

My desk calander keeps coming up trumps with some beautiful bags and this was a very pretty one.

Antique patchwork bag

The bag dates from the 1920's and is described as crazy patchwork velvet with a ball closure. I think it is enchanting.

I had to go to White Stuff this week as they were doing a special one day with 20% off. I could not resist buying this top as it fitted well and white is so versatile, I only hope it stays that colour and does not go washing machine grey.....

Not sure I like the big label in the back though

I may need to unpick the label as it is quite noticeable and is pink with a pink velvet bow, it looks good on the hangar but the wearing of all that stuff against my back might be itchy.

A few chores less to do this week



My Bag Calendar

This has been a productive week with a number of jobs finalised, but there are always a few left. Meanwhile, everyday I get to look at the next page on my bag calendar which is a present from DH. He certainly chose well this year as the idea is you put the day before behind the stash of cards and voila a new bag appears. They are all ages and vintage seems to crop up a lot like this one, 1910 crotcheted metal thread overlay with a braided handle, European and look at those little bobbles... oh so cute! I would love to own a bag like this and the shape is pretty too. At weekends you only get one card so I await tomorrow...

Anyway, one of the jobs I finished today was attaching some fringe to my new kitchen curtains for my door. I decided they lacked a certain edge if you know what I mean. I thought about buying some fringe and then even found some bullion fringe I liked on the internet but somehow I could not bring myself to hit the buy button.....Was it a return to my austerity days which was nagging me to 'make do and mend'?  Well I don't know but I found myself rummaging, as you do......Well I have quite a few places I can go when I have this urge and I soon found what I needed for inspiration, some odd bits of Linton Tweed fabric of course and a few bits of velvet too along with some lovely stiff chocolate brown ribbon, enough for two curtain bottoms. Last night you would have thought a bomb had hit my room with pieces of thread everywhere piled into little colour coordinated batches.

TIP. If you want some lovely different thread for couching down in machine embroidery you cannot go far wrong with a trip to Carlisle and bagging some Linton Tweed, (they now do mail order) Carefully tease and strip out individual threads and you have a unique range of threads which are perfect in embroidery. Did you know that Chanel have a lady who does the same and makes the braid for their Haute Couture suits from Linton Tweed fabric? In France this is called Passementerie, and here is an inspirational site run by Gina B.

Now back to my fringe, 1st I had to sew small pieces of thread to the ribbon keeping the ribbon in the middle and the thread evenly spaced either side. I kept the threads fairly tight together so you could not see the ribbon through the fringe but did not worry too much about a ragged edge as the colour changes and thread changes were more important to me. I was trying to achieve a rainbow effect. This was not looking too good last night I thought, so I left it until this morning wondering if it was turning into a mistake............But after a night's sleep and on reflection, I decided it was working and finished the 2nd phase of making the fringe which was to fold it over in on itself and sew down the long edge of the ribbon being careful to keep the threads well out of the way and sort of combing them into place with my stitch ripper as I sewed. The photo below shows this in progress.



Making the fringe

The 3rd part was to sew the fringe onto the curtains, which I did this afternoon but no photo as yet. However, they have met with DH approval who was consulted now and then I have to admit. Remember he went to Art College so has a natural eye for blunders..........and equally knows when something 'works'. So I can recommend giving it a go and I now fancy a few more fringes after checking out British Vogue online and seeing that they are going to be part of this years fashion trend which is craft......hmm


I must not get carried away with this success as there are still many more jobs awaiting this week.....one of which is the planting of chillies in January in the greenhouse otherwise they will be ripening in October like last year.



Don't you just love those gardening jobs.

 

Day 5 Advent Challenge better late than never...........................

Just made it today I hope. I have had another full on day with plenty to do. Tomorrow I am having a stair carpet fitted so this morning I had to clear the landing.  You see we have a desk and computer on the landing which is very convenient for us because there is a superb natural niche up there.  It allows us the luxury of a computer each and the landing one also serves as the music centre because it has good speakers and they kind of give a better sound around the house from up there. So the music is softer than blaring out from mine down here. Then in the afternoon we went up Latrigg for a doggie walk in the snow again and although it's only a small mountain (1000') it has some steep bits going down and also going up ha  ha......

Anyway, now you know why I am a touch late with the challenge....... So today's piccies then. This is the back of the bag which is showing how I attached rings to the side expansion straps. This is a glitzy bag with silver in the fabric so I used silver thread to attach 1" black rings underneath the handles.

This shot shows how I attached the same rings to the front but added swivel thingies (like on a dog lead) so I can un clip them and make the sides of the bag bigger; useful when in the supermarket not all the food fits into your bags. Also good when out shopping or taking the mail down to the post office :-) for DH.

And finally, the rest of the bag.   This is a back view....I stitched on a simple fastening tab which does up on a magnetic catch.  I top stitched the tab with silver thread to match the rings and also decided to top stitch all around the tape I used on the edge of the bag. Result, I am pleased with it and I can't wait to go shopping with it. I am beginning to enjoy designing and making my own bags and without the wonderful fabric from Guleser Textiles in Turkey I don't know how I would manage. Loads of their fabrics can be purchased in Keswick at this Aladdin's cave of a shop Textures it is bursting with goodies........... I am thinking new curtains for the kitchen for Christmas already......................

From the sublime to the ridiculous?

I am still having problems with blogger turning my photos ninety degrees, this one was taken as a landscape not a portrait and look what happened when I uploaded it.  I know that I am not the only person who is suffering from this problem coz Sally http://quiltfeather.blogspot.com/ reported it too.  Anyway, I don't have time tonight to mess about and delete it.  So I hope you like it anyway as it was shown to me by a friend at our EG meeting on Thursday and is a supreme example of crazy quilting. So thank you Marilyn. I have a sneaking feeling that she is going to make some more blocks like this one and if she does will try and show them to you. As you know I bought a book on the subject recently but have not had time yet to make much progress on anything to do with crazy quilting, although I can say that it has been a crazy week so far.......

This next shot is the inside of a carpet bag I am trying to complete. I know it looks really bright but I thought hey why not? Again I took this shot as a landscape and its come out as turned around by blogger  grrrrrrr.

But you can see the little black tape with the clasp? on the end for my keys and also the large black pockets edged with bright pink velvet  yumm. On the other side is another deep pocket edged in silvery black for my purse.  The base of the inside is pink velvet and the sides are this really lovely flower print. I have not finished the bag yet and when I do I will post it up. I hope I can fit it in this week as Wednesday is Cumbria Patchworkers and we are making a Christmas Stocking .... seems every year I get to make one. Actually, my lovely DD in California has received 2 so far so I can think of a home for this one too........

Next up is the Viking... yes I know it's another terrible photo but what can I do? He was standing straight when I took him and when I UPLOADED  it went down hill from there.... I won't show him so large as he might frighten you!  Actually his appearance was not frightening at all it was supposed to be but no I felt quite at home, must have been the grey beard and beer belly.

He did give a very good talk about the Vikings to the ladies at Keswick Embroiderers Guild on Thursday and if you want to see some photos I took of some of the textiles he brought along I sent them onto Lesley to post on the blog which is http://keswickembroiderers.blogspot.com/ or you can find a link to it in my favourite blogs. He was a nice chap ex Royal Marines and he seemed to enjoy showing off in the gear...If you want him to come and visit you then go check him out http://www.vikingasaga.co.uk/

Lastly, I was up Helvellyn on Saturday in very wintry conditions with Bella and so no photos, anyway, you would not want to see us both sitting there on the top trying to keep warm whilst waiting for the others coming up Striding Edge. We waited and waited... with figures lurking out of the mist but no DH and his mates until at last they came. Bella and I had eaten our lunch by then and were nearly about to set off back down the way we came to Swirls carpark. As usual the top was swarming with people who all came up in odd assorted groups, some even in jeans the idiots.....they would not have been able to wait on the top for over an hour like Bella and I. So it is quite a relief to be sat here at my laptop with Bella asleep by the door because the wood burning stove is too warm for her......Pile more on I say as it has gone quite chilly in Cumbria.

Having fun

Well yes I have been enjoying myself this week because I have been experimenting with new ideas for bags. You see Keswick Embroiderers Guild meeting this Thursday is all about making bags and so I felt I had to at least try and design something new. I had been toying with an idea for the perfect quick professional looking bag for a while and then one morning I had an inspiration. So here is the result, may I show you my Linton Tweed effort first. (I made this a couple of weeks back actually.)

Most of my bags over the years have been shoulder bags as I don't like to carry a bag in my hands. I do sometimes carry one (usually at weddings) but not often. So this one was designed with one large roomy interior and a secure D fastening which you can buy here off the wonderful Lisa Lam who also gives loads of free patterns and advise for bag making. It also has a secure inner compartment with a zip and again go to Lisa's site for how to do this as her instructions are simplicity itself.  I made the shoulder strap with webbing which you can buy at any good climbing shop (loads of them in Keswick) but if you look around I am sure you will find some in your area. The webbing was incased in the tweed and then for an added luxury I put a strip of lovely red leather down the outer edge...I also used red leather to make two triangles for the shoulder fastenings at the sides.

This bag was on test on my recent Yorkshire trip and it passed with flying colours. I even took it out on the Dales for a 3 hour walk and stuffed an Ordanance Survey map inside with no problems. However, I wanted to also try some other fabric which is made at this place in Turkey. You can buy this fabric in Keswick from here  and I often go in just to buy small pieces or offcuts as we call them. But this time I had been given some small pieces by my friend who lives in Borrowdale and I had already made one bag http://keswick-eg.blogspot.com/2009/02/labor-omnia-vincit.html with some of this fabric. (If some of you more experienced bloggers can tell me how to link back to my previous posting other than this effort, I will be eternally grateful)

Anyway, so I now present the 2nd bag made with the Turkish fabric...

This bag is slightly shorter than the previous one and the strap is a little bit thicker whilst the fastening is a magnetic one so that the full beauty of the fabric on the front is not obliterated. It turns out to be a stiffer bag too. Anyway, I am now toying with the idea of floral embellishments, but if any of you have any ideas or hints and tips please let me know. I am here to learn......I have bought a couple of brooch backs which I thought I might use for this purpose. I did discover recently a site with 'zip' corsages which looked interesting.

Meanwhile, I also made some new cushion covers with some more Guleser fabric. These are meant to brighten up my sofa and I am so pleased with the result that I am hankering to make more and even considering re-upholstering a chair or two...(I once spent a whole week doing up an old Chesterfield Sofa I bought for £54 and sold it 2 years later for £240.) That was when I was a student studying History at Lancaster University and I was hard up for cash. So here are the cushions

I hope you like them as much as I do...

Google Find

Here is inspiration for any budding crewel worker, I found this on a recent Google search.


I have been busy working on the bag for the workshop at the next Embroiderers' Guild meeting on 19th November. There should be plenty of ideas to choose from on that day and I will have my new bag to show you too.

Labor Omnia Vincit

Well, that was a mouthful, but if you know what it means you will understand why I used it for this posting. It's been a long day, literally, I awoke about 4.55am and nothing I tried would get me back to sleep, so I did the usual and made off for the kitchen to put the kettle on; back in bed with T for 2 and Bella snuggled between the sheets all was cosy. That's when I went through my mental list of all the jobs I have to do between now and Rheged. Don't know why I focused on the Regional Day but it was as good as any other. So I have made a start and number one is the Carpet Bag! Yes I finished it a couple of days ago but had not found time to take the photos, so here are some shots I took this morning.If you remember our ladies were given this lovely Turkish furnishing material by my special friend in Rosthwaite. So I just had to try and make the bag using the best angle on this lovely flower, I think its a poppy. The clever bit is that this fabric is reversed, i.e. I used the back of it not the front as it looked thicker and more lush.




The design I made up myself after studying bags on the internet for a few days I quickly came up with an idea for a bag, then all I had to do was make the pattern and see what happened; like a voyage of discovery. Well it took a few turns here and there but I am so pleased with it, here's an inside view of the red linen material I used for the lining and the little ties and zipper pull.By the way if you click on the photos on this blog most of them come up much bigger so you can really scrutinise the interior of this bag. You can see I made one large horizontal pocket which I sewed down the middle to make 2 (this is the real side of the fabric) and in the background you see a cord with a swivel bolt snap on it for attaching keys or even a purse. Then on the front side you see a long vertical pocket which is useful for glasses or anything long like pens or pencils to take to embroidery class.

But the real beauty of this bag is that it expands...... yes if you undo the side ties and undo the zip all the way (it's open ended) then you have a much bigger space for all that junk you need to carry about. Hey presto, when finished, you do the ties up again and its back to the smaller size. Here's a photo of it fully expanded.I turned it round too so you can see the vertical pocket better. So now if you would like to make this bag yourself, please post a comment. I would be quite happy to make a 2nd one and take photos of each stage and post on this blog, but be warned I cannot be responsible if it does not work out for you, as I am pretty nifty with my hands and sewing machine.
So I can't help you basically and its only my pattern not a commercial one. Also, I used a ring binder folder (thick clear plastic type) for the base and 4 little side 'bones' to make it stand up so you need to be able to cut up plastic safely. I know I could have bought a bag bottom, but I wanted to see what could be done with what I had around.

Here's a side view











March Workshop
This is with Gill Reid and the subject is 'Head Cases' but I am assured that if we are fast we will make more than the head for the doll, so all being well she will come away with a body too.... Not like the photo....
Now you will need the following items to bring to the workshop if you are going to make the doll. Bye the way you need to book this workshop and as usual that means contacting Pat Knifton as she has a list.

½ metre closely woven cotton fabric (flesh colour or cream) - cotton percale sheets are ok
Strong thread to match
Pipe cleaners (optional)
Dress fabrics & trimmings
Yarn for hair
Stuffing
Sharp pencil
Colouring pencils - water colours - acrylic paints - oil pastels - gel pens - fabric paints
Long sewing needles
Paintbrush (very fine)
Cotton wool buds
Any embellishments you like e.g. feathers, beads, shells, silk flowers, foliage etc.
Lastly, a sewing machine will be useful but not vital.

Gill will bring along some cotton fabric and some stuffing if anyone cannot bring some.
If you do not have everything don't worry too much, someone will lend you theirs I expect as friends usually don't mind sharing.

Well that is that and now for something completely different......................................Yes its a sneaky peak at the Wall Hanging, with Lesley's lovely woodland scene at the top, next is Sally's Ruskin Lace and lastly the Fairtrade sign as Keswick is a Fairtrade Town. More photos like this next time.

Cumbrian Hospitality & a little bit of history

Lets kick off this blog with a recipe which I tried this week at a friends house. She is a marvellous cook and runs a Guest House in Rosthwaite which is a cut above your average, with its own sitting room for guests, complete with open fire and their very own kitchen.

She cooks on an old AGA and her kitchen is a large roomy place where she has a table for her Bernina sewing machine and of course she is still sewing all sorts of things on it.

When I first went to the place I was shown all of the guest rooms and each one had a lovingly made quilt on it, all completely hand quilted by the 'lap quilting method'. After the tour of the house I was shown her latest 'block' for her next quilt and of course had to know how it was all done. That was fatal, as I became bitten with the bug. I made my first quilt with the lap method when I was still lecturing full time and remember stitching the blocks on my sewing machine and then spending many evenings by the lamp carefully hand quilting each square.

But let me not digress, I promised a recipe and this one is very good, but I don't have a photo as I have not had a chance to make it myself yet, but rest assured my husband was with me at the tasting and he liked it, so it will have to be made soon....

So here it is

DATE & LEMON BARS

4oz Margarine or butter
1 tbsp Golden Syrup

Melt in a saucepan

Add

5 oz SR Flour
5 oz coconut
4oz chopped dates
2½oz sugar
1 tsp Baking powder

Mix and pour into a lightly greased tin size 11" x 7" and smooth the top.
Bake 300F 25 - 30 mins

When cool, heat juice of a lemon with 4oz icing sugar and pour over the top.
Cut into bars when cold.

Lastly enjoy with good friends and have a natter.

The reason I went out to Borrowdale in the first place was because I had bumped into my friend in Booths Supermarket and she told me she would like to donate some material to our stash as she had been given more than she could use by another contact. Well, we never demure when it comes to material because the rules are YOU NEVER HAVE ENOUGH...Even if your shelves are bulging it is still the same rule..

Well this material looks perfect for making bags. Carpet bags actually. So I trotted off to our meeting on Wednesday with a large cardboard box of the stuff expecting to have to cart half of it back home again after the meeting. Well I needn't have worried, because once I mentioned fabric suitable for bags and finished talking there was nearly a stampede.... But they were told to make the bags and bring them along to show the rest of us so that we could pick out the best ones and then we could set up a workshop to show how it was done.

It always seems to me that no sooner is one item made than they all want to set off and make another....Which is handy really because I had asked them all to contribute some embroidery to a 'banner' to be displayed at our Regional Day next April. We are co - hosting with Cumbria Branch in Carlisle and I wanted something to put behind the Keswick Stall so came up with the idea of a banner. I have since been told to change the name to 'wallhanging' so that I don't attribute the wrong words to the item. Anyway, if you are confused so was I.

I am still not sure what to call IT but IT has started to materialise at last and here are some piccies of work in progress on the ah humm item....






This is Sally placing the copper text at the top of the item. We decided to use actual copper for the letters as it represents the copper mining industry in the area.

You see the sheep left, what a lovely example of a Herdwick, that's the local sheep which is seen on most of the fells around here and in Borrowdale. It was the breed most favoured by Beatrix Potter and she and her farm manager at Hill Top Farm, Tom Storey used to show them at Keswick Show. They had a series of prize winning ewes spanning two decades at the agricultural shows when Tom joined Beatrix in 1927 after leaving Troutbeck Park. Beatrix used to impress her shepherds with her skill at drawing her sheep. Baa

This is one of the smaller squares which have been contributed towards the finished item by each member of our guild. We were all asked to make either a small square or a rectangle to go down both sides of the item which represent the white stones on the side of the Moot Hall in the market square in Keswick. These are acorns which are plentiful around here and they are done in crewel work to remind us of the wonderful day we had Phillipa Turnbull here last year to give us a workshop in beginners crewel work. It was a revelation to many of us and do you know that we all still do it thanks to Phillipa's inspiration. There were so many who volunteered to do a crewel work piece that I thought there might be a problem but happily we don't mind some duplication as all the subject matter is different.



Here is the embroidery of the Moot Hall showing the lovely placement of stone down the sides alternating between squares and rectangles. It has been worked with great skill by Sally who spent hours experimenting with fabric and threads to create just the right image. She used white felt in the end to represent the stones which are so distinctive a feature of the Moot Hall. It was built by German Miners in Queen Elizabeth I's reign to look like their meeting halls back in Germany.